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Shorenstein’s 2000 West Loop South in Houston, Texas Goes LEED Gold

Shorenstein Properties LLC has received LEED Gold certification for Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) for 2000 West Loop South, a class-A building located in the heart of Houston’s Uptown District.

2000 West Loop South is almost 357,000 sq. ft. of class- A office space in a prime location near the Houston Galleria. Amenities include a fitness center, deli and onsite management provided by locally-based Means Knaus Partners L.P. The building carries an Energy Star rating of 81.

With this certification, Shorenstein now owns more than 10 million sq. ft. of LEED-certified property. Twenty properties currently owned by the company are LEED certified, 16 of them at the Gold level. Shorenstein is in the formal process of pursuing LEED certification for three additional properties.

Thirteen creative and visionary winners were announced at the second annual ULI Chicago Vision Awards held on June 5, 2013 at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago.

The 2013 Vision Awards winners were named in the following categories: leadership, project, program, and young visionary. Special recognition was given to 10th District Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer for her outstanding role in the formation of the Cook County Land Bank Authority. In his remarks, Paul Shadle, Partner, DLA Piper LLP and ULI Chicago Chair, applauded Gainer's dedication and commitment to this innovative and compelling approach to the foreclosure crisis.

The Vision Awards honored projects and programs that used creative development practices, inventive partnerships or sharing of resources, imaginative problem solving, or visionary ideas contributing to the growth of vibrant communities. Nominees were evaluated by a jury of peers in the industry. Winners received a commemorative award and will be featured on chicago.uli.org as well as in an upcoming issue of Urban Light, ULI Chicago’s quarterly newsletter. Qualifying winners can be submitted to ULI’s Global Awards for Excellence in 2014. ULI Chicago congratulates its other 2013 Vision Awards winners:

Merritt Properties’ Meadowridge 95, Building III, Goes LEED Platinum

Merritt Properties’ Meadowridge 95-Building III in Baltimore, Md., has earned LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of LEED certification available. This designation places the building in an elite class, with only two other LEED-CS Platinum buildings in the Baltimore area, which are Merritt’s Schilling Green and Schilling Green II office buildings in Hunt Valley, Md.

Once a brownfields site, Meadowridge 95 fronts I-95 in Howard County and will be comprised of four Class A office buildings upon completion. Building III is a two-story, 68,470-sq.-ft. building featuring a roster of sustainable design elements and state-of-the-art building systems.

Among the building’s many green features, the innovative underfloor air distribution system (UFAD) offers the most tangible benefit to building occupants. Unlike traditional overhead systems, the UFAD delivers fresh air directly to the breathing zone and allows employees to adjust the airflow within their individual workspaces to provide greater thermal comfort. The UFAD’s modular access flooring also facilitates data cabling and accommodates an array of workspace configurations.

In addition to the LEED-CS Platinum certification, Meadowridge 95-Building III also won a 2012 Award of Excellence in the “New Project, $5 Million to $10 Million” category from ABC’s Baltimore Metro Chapter.

Bank of America’s Low-Income Housing Challenge Picks Green Winner

This year’s winners of the Bank of America Annual Low-Income Housing Challenge have been announced. Students from team Terra Housing Studio of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo won one of the top prizes for their project, Cambria Pines, a 40-unit multifamily affordable project to be built in Cambria, Calif., which contains sustainable elements.

The project’s goal was to provide affordable housing for low-, very low- and extremely low-income families of service workers appropriate to their needs. Cambria Pines is designed to speak to the rural character of Cambria and the natural landscape of the site and features low impact development strategies that address the water shortage. Terra Housing is creating a healthy, sustainable environment that fosters a community centered atmosphere. It will reduce the time, costs and other negative effects associated with a long commute for low-income service workers by providing affordable housing options closer to job opportunities and enabling them to bike or walk to work.

Terra Housing reviewed the requirements of LEED for Homes: The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee’s Sustainable Building Methods and Minimum Construction Standards for Energy Efficien­cy requirements for Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects in relation to LEED sustainable building ratings system. Because there is considerable overlap and two members of Terra Housing are LEED Accredited Professionals for New Construction, it was determined that the project could incorporate sustainable features without the added expense of pursuing LEED certification. Still, LEED for Homes was used as a framework for design and a preliminary review of expected points under the LEED for Homes certification track was conducted.

The building’s utility bills are predicted to be low from efficient thermal envelopes. Exterior walls are traditional wood frame with light colored stucco siding and high-R Value insulation. High-density fiberboard roof decking is laminated with an interior reflective surface and four inches of rigid insulation provide a high-performing composite roof insulation system. Double paned low-E windows also improve the thermal performance of the envelope. Cambria receives a lot of sunshine. Both solar thermal and photovoltaic systems have been reviewed as ways to reduce non-renewable energy requirements on site. Given the need to limit costs and keep the project as affordable to tenants as possible, those systems have not been pursued, but the necessary structure is built into the buildings to accommodate solar on south-facing roofs.

Given the serious shortage in water supply in Cambria, water efficiency and conservation is central to the project’s sustainable strategy. Cambria Pines creates an effective water use strategy through a four pronged approach: Native and drought tolerant landscaping, efficient plumbing fixtures, rainwater harvesting, and a recycled grey water system.Cambria Pines will feature water-sense labeled faucets and showerheads that provide the feel and utility of standard fixtures while using a third less water. Dual-flush toilets that use up to 67 percent less water will provide significant water and cost savings for the development.

KDC Plans LEED-Certified Corporate Center at University of Kentucky’s Coldstream Research Campus

National commercial real estate and investment firm KDC, under subcontract with Sperry Van Ness Real Estate Advisors – Lexington, is marketing for development the 38-acre, 250,000-sq.-ft. KDC Corporate Center at the KDC Corporate Center at the University of Kentucky’s Coldstream Research Campus. One of the largestresearch campuses in the country, Coldstream’s tenants include Hewlett Packard, Tempur-Pedic, A&W Restaurants, Allconnect and Bingham McCutcheon.

Phase one is planned to include a three-story, 100,000-sq.-ft., class-A LEED-certified office building modeled after a highly efficient, sustainable and cost-effective prototypical design that KDC has successfully utilized around the country with other corporate clients. Construction of phase one will commence when pre-leasing reaches 50 percent occupancy.

The planned building features a floor design that accommodates more employees per sq. ft., with raised access flooring for easy access to route electrical, phone and data cabling. Large floor plates with under-floor air distribution provide work stations with individual HVAC controls for temperature adjustment. The under-floor system saves approximately 30 percent in energy costs and improves air quality. Other building attributes include improved lighting and acoustic quality, ease of transitioning interior components and increased day lighting opportunities.

The 735-acre Coldstream Research Campus, located at the intersection of I-64 and I-75, is minutes from the University of Kentucky and downtown Lexington. The research campus, once a well-known Kentucky horse farm, now houses more than 62 companies and 1,360 people working in the biotech, pharmaceutical, equine health and service industries.

The Coldstream campus’s amenities include a 225-acre city park, two dog parks and a 1.8-mile section of Lexington’s 12-mile running and bicycling trail that connects downtown Lexington to the Kentucky Horse Park. An Embassy Suites Hotel, the Paddock Grille Restaurant and a new hospital also are on the campus.

Noesis Energy, an Austin, Texas-based company that has created a community and marketplace for decision-makers in the energy-efficiency sector, has launched a service to jumpstart spending on critical energy-saving investments by commercial and industrial businesses.

The new service connects energy and facility professionals—from building managers to energy consultants and manufacturers—with financial institutions that specialize in energy-efficiency lending. Four specialist players are already on board: BluePath Finance, Metrus Energy, TIP Capital and Vireo Energy.

The range of financing options currently offered by this initial syndicate of lenders includes capital and operating leases, efficiency services agreements, managed energy services agreements, and property-assessed clean energy financing.

The new service makes available billions of dollars to get energy-saving C&I projects funded and underway. In its new report, "Show Me The Money," the Environmental Defense Fund has identified lack of financing sources as a crucial roadblock that slows the commissioning of energy-efficiency projects.

The report concludes that there is no standardized way to evaluate the ROI of energy-efficiency project, it's difficult to accurately measure the savings and there is no marketplace to connect financing firms with the professionals who are looking for financing for their projects. Noesis is attempting through this new project to take direct aim at all these problems by partnering, as the largest free energy-management platform, with specialist efficiency-financing firms to unlock that project funding—and thereby the savings.

W. P. Carey Inc., a national provider of corporate sale-leaseback financing, has acquired the research and development and class-A office facilities of Cargotec Corporation in Tampere, Finland, subject to a 20-year triple-net lease. The total acquisition cost of the 183,569-sq.-ft. facility was approximately $52 million.

The facility was completed in December 2012 as a technology and competence center dedicated to the research and development of energy-efficient, safe and intelligent machinery and automation solutions. It is located in an established office and industrial region of Tampere, near the Tampere University of Technology, the leading technical university in Finland. Tampere is the largest inland city in the Nordics and the third-largest city in Finland.

Cargotec is a Finnish public company that develops and manufactures cargo-handling machinery for ships, ports, terminals and local distribution. Cargotec’s products are used in every major port around the globe and on half of the world’s oceangoing fleet. It operates in 120 countries, employs approximately 10,000 personnel globally and generated more than $4.3 billion in revenues in 2012.

Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. of California will receive the Alliance for Quality Construction’s Q Award for construction of its LEED Silver-certified RedBuilding on June 20th at the iconic Pacific Design Center. The new RedBuilding is the Pacific Design Center’s final component comprised of the 1975 Blue Building and 1988 Green Building, in West Hollywood, Calif. The project was union built by Jones & Jones, and architecturally designed by Cesar Pelli, FAIA, of Pelli Clarke Pelli, who is notable for also designing the 2007 Q Award recipient, the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County, Calif.

The $165 million RedBuilding is a result of collaboration of developer and owner Charles S. Cohen, agency construction manager Jones & Jones and internationally renowned architect Cesar Pelli. This collaboration completed a magnificent structure with smart technology and increased electrical capacity designed to be flexible to meet fast-changing tech needs. Full of natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows, RedBuilding offers a purposefully healthier environment for occupants.

RedBuilding offers 400,000 sq. ft. of luxury class-A office spaces with expansive city views, parking for nearly 1,500 cars and executive amenities like an elegantly landscaped Palm Court six stories above ground level and private elevators. The design, split into two buildings linked to the Green Building via a sky bridge and full of architectural curves and angles, created challenges for the contractor in delivering the vision created by Cesar Pelli. The contractor visited glass manufacturers around the world to create the exact shade of red glass to match Pelli’s and Cohen’s specifications. The red glass panels were engineered in Minnesota, manufactured in China and then shipped to Bangkok, Thailand, for installation into the aluminum frames. Through a four-sided silicone glazing system, the curtain wall, 100 percent solid red frit glass combined with a 50 percent dot and 75 percent dot pattern, creates the solid red appearance of the RedBuilding’s exterior; the wall also features gray vision glass windows.

AQC’s Q Award is given annually for outstanding contributions toward the attainment of quality construction within the building industry of Southern California. The winner is selected by the Alliance’s membership from quality union construction projects completed in the previous year. Recipients of previous Q Awards have been Providence Holy Cross Medical Center (2012), Los Angeles Unified School District’s Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools (2011), the new LAPD Police Administration Building (2010), LAUSD Ramón C. Cortines School of the Visual and Performing Arts (2009), Nokia Theatre at LA LIVE (2008), Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County (2007), The Getty Villa in Malibu (2006), The Home Depot Center in Dominguez Hills (2005), The Walt Disney Concert Hall (2004), and Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (2003).

Project for UMass Medical School Wins Award from CMAA New England Chapter

A construction project for the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been named Project of the Year in its size category by the New England Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America.

The new nine-story, 500,000-sq.-ft. Albert Sherman Center and 1,200-car parking garage in Worcester, Mass., won the honor in the category of “construction value greater than $100 million.”

The project was completed in 2012 and received LEED Gold certification.It was designed by ARC with WSP, a New York-based engineering design and environmental consultancy; the general contractor was Suffolk Construction.

Energy Star certification has been awarded to W&H Properties’ 1350 Broadway building in New York City. 1350 Broadway, which received an Energy Star score of 87, indicating that it is a top performer, is the fourth W&H property to receive Energy Star certification.

The program, which follows the retrofit model underway at the portfolio flagship Empire State Building, encompasses efforts to conserve energy, reduce water usage, recycle waste and improve environmental quality.

Situated in the Broadway office corridor, across from Macy’s flagship location, 1350 Broadway contains 25 stories and more than 400,000 sq. ft. of modern office space. It offers unsurpassed access to transportation, being just steps from the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak at Penn Station, Port Authority, PATH, 15 subway lines and all major bus lines.

The building recently completed a $53 million upgrade program that includes a new lobby, renovated elevators, a new roof and façade, renovated air-conditioned public corridors and restrooms and upgraded building-wide systems, including state-of-the-art electrical, plumbing, HVAC and security.

Part of the W&H Properties pre-war trophy office portfolio, the building is supervised by Malkin Holdings LLC. Available space at 1350 Broadway includes W&H portfolio-standard, high-end pre-built units from 2,100 sq. ft. to 5,700 sq. ft.

IKEA Installs Rooftop Solar Panels at Charlotte, N.C. Store

IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, officially plugged in the solar energy system installed at its store in Charlotte, N.C. The 122,000-sq.-ft. PV array consists of a 1,015-kW system, built with 4,228 panels. IKEA Charlotte’s program will produce approximately 1,330,000 kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 938 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), eliminating the emissions of 195 cars or powering 140 homes yearly.

This installation represents the 39th completed solar project for IKEA in the U.S., the last one that had been planned and underway, making the total U.S. solar presence of IKEA nearly 90 percent of its locations (39 of 44 buildings), with a total generation goal of 38 MW. IKEA owns and operates each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings—as opposed to a solar lease or power purchase agreement—and globally has allocated $1.8 billion to invest in renewable energy through 2015. This investment reinforces the long-term commitment of IKEA to sustainability and confidence in photovoltaic (PV) technology. Consistent with the company’s goal of being energy independent by 2020, IKEA has installed more than 250,000 solar panels on buildings across the world and owns/operates approximately 110 wind turbines in Europe.

Biltmore Estate Expands Solar Field with Smart Modules from Upsolar

Upsolar, an international provider of solar PV modules, has completed a 500-kW solar electric system at Biltmore in Asheville, N.C. Constructed by local firm Phillips and Jordan Inc., the PV system features Upsolar’s smart module technology-powered by Tigo Energy to maximize system performance.

The solar electric system is an expansion of the estate’s current solar program, taking the company from a six-acre, 1.2- MW solar system to 1.7 MW on nine acres. Completed in 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt II, the estate covers 8,000 acres and remains the largest privately owned house in the United States today.

This 500-kW addition features Upsolar smart modules, which combine Upsolar’s PV modules with Tigo Energy’s power optimizers. Using smart modules, Phillips and Jordan was able to overcome the structural challenges of the system, which required them to preserve the land on the historic landmark while optimizing the power harvesting ability of each module. This was the first solar array constructed by Phillips and Jordan.

EPRI-Southern Company-TVA Research Sites to Host National Air-Quality Study

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is undertaking a research project in the Southeast United States to quantify the contributions of biogenic and manmade emissions to air quality by examining atmospheric transformations and interactions. Air-quality monitoring stations maintained by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based EPRI, Southern Company and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will support ground-based measurements for the project.

The Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study is a six-week air-quality measurement analysis taking place this summer. The study is part of a larger, $20 million research campaign known as the Southeast Atmosphere Study, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in addition to contributions from EPRI, Southern Company and TVA.

The field campaign to collect data on gases and particles in the atmosphere began on June 1 and continues through July 15, and will include ground- and air-based air-quality measurements. The Southeast is an ideal location to study biogenic-manmade interactions, because of the proximity of vegetative emissions with a variety of manmade emissions sources. The research seeks to determine how emissions, chemistry and meteorology combine to affect regional air quality and climate in the Southeastern United States.

SunWize Technologies Inc. is designing and installing what will be the Independent State of Samoa’s largest solar electricity generation system. With an expected completion date in late 2013, the 546-kW project with Samoan power utility Electric Power Corporation (EPC) is a notable international installation for SunWize, a leading provider of sustainable energy solutions.

“Currently, diesel power plants generate approximately 60 percent of Samoa’s electricity, making the country dependent upon imported fossil fuels,” Rapa J. Young, solar project team leader for EPC, noted in a statement. “As a result, fluctuating global oil prices have a tremendous effect on electricity tariffs. We believe our investment in this renewable solar energy project will allow us to reduce Samoa’s dependency on fossil fuels and provide its citizens with a more reliable, stable and affordable supply of electricity.”

Expected to generate 700,000 kW hours annually, the project will span three separate sites on two Samoan islands—Savai’i and Upolu. The communities of Salelologa, Savai’i and Tanugamanono, Upolu will be home to two ground-mount installations, while the Vaitele, Upolu site will contain both a ground mount array and a solar canopy building that will also be used for EPC equipment storage. The Government of Japan is financing the project through the Pacific Environment Community Fund.

Samoa’s island location in the South Pacific will provide the San Jose, Calif.-based SunWize team with a number of logistical challenges throughout the project’s duration. However, according to David Eveland, vice president of sales for the sustainable energy group, SunWize has the expertise to make the Samoan project a success. The solar electric system in Independent Samoa must be able to withstand 124-mph typhoon-force winds and extremely corrosive ocean air. Using its engineering and design experience from the Pago Pago projects, the SunWize team applied the similar principals to all the ground mount systems, as well as the solar canopy planned for Vaitele to withstand high wind loads. The company also implemented a similar extensive corrosion control plan dictating appropriate galvanization methods for solar module frame mounting and grounding. The plan will limit the system’s potential for corrosion, extending its life to an estimated 25 years.

DuPont and Yingli Green Energy Sign Expanded Strategic Agreement

DuPont and China’s Yingli Energy Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd., have signed a new one-year, $100 million strategic agreement that includes the supply of advanced solar materials, the installation of a solar power plant and co-marketing initiatives aimed at accelerating the broader and faster adoption of solar energy to address the world’s growing energy needs. This agreement is an expansion of a $100 million supply agreement between the companies announced in February 2012.

“Materials are critical to help ensure our solar panels provide superior power output for their 25-year expected lifetime, or longer,” said Liansheng Miao, chairman and chief executive officer, Yingli Green Energy. “The agreement we have signed with DuPont assures our supply of high-quality materials that have proven performance and our continued collaboration on further technological advances to optimize the efficiency and durability of our products. Yingli Green Energy has long been committed to making solar affordable for everyone with superior-quality products.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Yingli China will purchase materials including DuPont Solamet photovoltaic metallization pastes that help boost the power output of solar cells and DuPont Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride film that has been proven to protect solar panels even in the harshest environmental conditions. The companies also will extend their collaboration to include the installation of a solar energy plant at a DuPont facility in China using panels made with advanced materials from DuPont, and will potentially expand installation of similar plants to additional DuPont sites or other commercial projects in China. Yingli China and DuPont further agreed to extend their collaboration on technology to develop the next generation of high-efficiency solar cells and modules and on co-marketing activities.

“This agreement further expands our strategic relationship, and we look forward to working even more closely with Yingli to deliver superior-quality solar panels that will continue to accelerate the adoption of solar energy to meet the growing global demand for energy,” David B. Miller, president, DuPont Electronics and Communications, said in a statement.

Selex Es, Rudin Management and Columbia University Team Up for Energy-Saving System Di-BOSS

The global technology company Selex ES of Finmeccanica is bringing to market Di-BOSS, a new generation of digital building operating systems that will be unveiled at IBCon 2013 (Intelligent Building Conference) at the Orange County Convention Center this week in Orlando, Fla. The new system, a joint development of Selex ES, Rudin Management, one of New York City’s largest privately held property management companies, and Columbia University through its School of Engineering and Applied Science, will be showcased in Booth #6769 where representatives from all three partnership members will be on hand to demonstrate the Di-BOSS system.

"Di-BOSS(TM) represents an additional significant step in the development of the Selex ES smart systems portfolio that spans integrated networked infrastructures for large urban environments through to specific break through products that have a direct impact on citizens' lives, allowing for a new, smarter, more responsible and collaborative approach to energy management in sky scrapers," Fabrizio Giulianini, CEO of Selex ES, said in a statement.

One primary feature of Di-BOSS(TM) is its ability to track occupancy on a large scale. "The technology to link the building management system with occupancy to control energy use is a cutting edge capability," Dr. Roger Anderson, Columbia University energy researcher and professor, said in a statement. "The Di-BOSS system's continuous feedback loops give building managers reliable data to make decisions that significantly improve operating efficiency and better serve the people in the building."

Trinity Financial won an award for the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of Appleton Mills in Lowell, Mass., last month at the 35th Annual Preservation Awards Ceremony held at the Massachusetts Archives Building in Dorchester. The Secretary of the Commonwealth and Chairman of the Massachusetts Historical Commission William Galvin presented the award.

Appleton Mills was chosen based on the adaptive reuse of the former Appleton Manufacturing Company property constructed in the early 1900s. Trinity Financial worked in collaboration with Copley Wolff Design Group and ICON Architecture with the design for phase one of the Hamilton Canal District Master Plan.

The new Appleton Mills opened in 2011 after the historic mill was transformed from a crumbling industrial relic into a vibrant arts community of 130 live/work housing units adjacent to downtown Lowell. The project goal was to create an affordable and attractive place to live while capturing the energy and vitality of the city.

Considering the beauty and tranquility of the adjacent canal, Copley Wolff Design Group’s landscape plan of the mill yard incorporated a symbolic use of water, which powered the original turbines, while emphasizing the gateway connection across the canal. Additionally, rain gardens partially enclosed by stacked-block seat-walls, alluding to canal walls, and a lighted fountain running parallel to the original penstocks complimented the redesign of the historic building.

The Hamilton Canal District Master Plan is a proposed pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented, mixed-use plam that aspires to create significant employment and housing opportunities to strengthen and diversify Lowell. To be implemented over the next decade, it includes a total of 1.6 million sq. ft. of new development over 13 acres and possible extension of the trolley system. Upon completion, it will provide many opportunities to enhance the public realm.

In addition to the Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award, the Appleton Mills project was previously awarded the J. Timothy Anderson Award for Excellence in Historic Rehabilitation by the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association.